FIFA goalkeeping tips and tricks

In FIFA17 and all other versions for that matter, you can force your keeper to attempt saves by pressing the shoot button when your opponent has taken a shot. Pretend you are the keeper and move the left stick in direction of the ball and press shoot. You will be surprised how useful this is and one of the best FIFA tips we have. Our number one FIFA17 goalkeeping tip without doubt. We aren’t talking about you as keeper such as pro Clubs but in normal Head to head, Ultimate Team, Career mode, kick off etc.

The following sections are for those actually choosing to control the keeper only in whichever game mode. Usually be a pro and Pro Clubs mode.

A goalkeeper in Pro Clubs is a must if you are aiming big and want to become the number one club in the world. A pro goalkeeper is in our opinion the most important person of your team. If you are struggling to score or are just literally being outplayed, a good goalkeeper can keep you in the game, whereas an AI keeper would just fold over. We’ve all had that moment in a Pro Clubs match where the AI keeper fails to save a simple shot and after you think to yourself “I could have saved that!” It can be very frustrating! However FIFA goalkeeping is an art and the hardest position to master. Follow these steps carefully.

FIFA goalkeeping guides

1. Camera angle

Change your camera angle to ‘Pro’. It will be a lot easier this way as you can see where you are positioned in the goal and it also makes it easier to see the path of shots and crosses too. The camera is set behind the goal and it pans with the position of the ball. Pressing select will change the camera position from behind the goal to the ball, which can be useful when the ball is further up the pitch for viewing purposes. Watching from your goal line is pretty boring! I wouldn’t recommend playing with the ‘tele’ angle either. You can’t quite judge if a shot is going left or right of the goal or if you’re in the middle of the goal. It may take some time getting used to, but believe me you will reap the benefits in the end.

2. Positioning

This is probably the hardest part of FIFA goalkeeping as a pro. I often hold left bumper (LB on xbox/L1 on Playstation) to keep my pro goalkeeper in position. Most of the time it is pretty competent, but when dealing with corners and crosses, I would strongly recommend re positioning manually! Please see my paragraph on corners further down the page for a full explanation. Keeping LB/L1 held also stops you from running out of position too much. The last thing you want to be doing is running around like a dodo bird in the area. Your goalkeeper will lose his composure if you do this, allowing the attacker to catch you off guard and possibly score as a result.

Some pro goalkeepers hate the LB/L1 function due to scripting errors so they like to manually re position themselves using Left trigger LT/L2. Holding LT/L2 enables your pro goalkeeper to take smaller steps whilst maintaining his composure. It can be useful in some situations but don’t use it all the time, It is like having all your settings on manual and the opposite having theirs on assisted, it is putting you at a disadvantage. Keep hold of LB/L1 to be safe.

3. Dealing with 2v1 (sweaty passers)

The only time I would consider not using LB/L1 is when dealing with 2 on 1 situations. This is where the attackers have broken free past your defenders. The opportunity arises where the attackers can perform what I like to call a “job seeker” (known as sweating in the community). Their tactic will be to bring you out and just before you get close, they’ll pass across to the other attacker and score. Using LB/L1 doesn’t account for these. The pro goalkeeper will line up to defend against the attacker with the ball, probably at the near post. But when they pass, your goalkeeper will be out of position allowing an easy shot into an open goal. Don’t get caught out!

What I like to do in this situation is place the goalkeeper in the middle of the goal and just wait for the shot or pass. You are more likely to deflect the ball away then winning the ball charging at them. I’ve had other situations where the attacker has hesitated and then tried to pass across the goal to the other attacker. At that point I have then managed to intercept the pass by diving in its path preventing a job seeker.

4. Don’t spam pass button

Have you ever noticed a pro goalkeeper throwing his arms into the air when the ball is around the box area? Or, why a goalkeeper makes an acrobatic dive out at corners? This will be because the pro goalkeeper is spamming the pass button. Do not ever do this. This freezes your goalkeeper where he cannot move until a second later. This could cost you dearly with one on ones. A good striker will try to trick/fake shot you, hoping that you’ll be spamming pass for them to score. Be confident and press pass button only at the right time. The striker will no doubt hesitate if you do not take the bait and you’ll be successful in winning the ball.

5. Corners

Corners can be tricky at times. Do you rush out or stay on the line? My advice, always stay on the line. Keep LB/L1 held down and do not spam pass! Your keeper will then only commit to intercept crosses if it is close, otherwise get ready for a potential header on goal. A pro striker against an AI defender will no doubt get onto these headers. Your goalkeeper will re position himself to defend against the incoming header so don’t panic.

If you see the ball being crossed to back post, let go of LB/L1, hold LT/L2 and move to back post. This is a popular tactic against pro goalkeepers where the opposition will expect you run out and punch the ball away. Do not get caught out or ever go for the punch out! 90% of the time the goalkeeper fails to clear the ball more then five yards! If the ball goes to the back post and you are holding LB/L1, you will find that your goalkeeper will not be composed. This allows the attacker a chance to score with a header across goal. Your goalkeeper will jerk towards the attacker first before becoming composed to dive back the other way, by then it is too late.

6. Goal kicks

Goal kicks depend on your playing style and other pro players. If you have a tall pro striker up front you can kick the ball to him for a potential flick on. If you choose this path, do not apply full power to the kick. Your strikers will struggle to gain the ball and you’ll most likely lose possession. Try aiming for around 75% power and it should 9/10 times land at your strikers head or body.

We recommend to kick down the wings. Use full power for the wingers to run on to. Pro goalkeepers can kick well over the halfway line. You will notice that the opposition’s wingbacks never fill stand too wide. Instruct your strikers and wingers to storm that wing and they’ll be guaranteed a through ball opportunity. Aim as far wide as you can before you kick, try experimenting when you’re next online to perfect it. You could also go short, but be wary of the opposition’s strikers lurking around. Not my recommendation, I like to play it safe.

7. Saving power penalties

This won’t work for finesse shots. But you will be able to tell if the player is going to use power as you can see the power meter! So practice this technique and you will save most power penalties. If a right foot player is taking it this is the guide. However if his left planted foot is next to the ball when about to shoot, the shot is going to the right. And if his planted left foot shows a gap next to the ball when striking the shot is going to left. For a left foot striker it is the opposite.

so in fifa 14 proclubs u can only have gk’ing as semi or manuel? so u have to dive in the right direction? i was great gk in f12 but there i could just push RS back or forward (to not get out of pos) and he would dive in right direction. so just need to know so i can change my play style if i have to 🙂

When Someone takes a longsot against me it bounces upinfromt of me and when i press up to catch it it dives backwards and they always score. Is there anyway to stop it from doing this. And by the way this really helped me 🙂

Hiya, the positioning thing is extremely annoying, I stand still for 3/4 of the game because we are winning and always up the field,at the end of the game I had 25 out of positions, by the first 10 mins of the game my rating was 4 and never increased throughout the game

I have realised its hard to score when your opponent presses the select button to get the cursor on the goal keeper. Even after having taking the shot as long as theyr in time to press select its almost impossible to score. Is there a way to beat this on FIFA 13?

2, hi mate, im having trouble with positioning but first what do you use to dive x or stick? I use x, is this bad or is better to use stick?. when you have an attacker with the ball they can shoot anyway left or right, but how can I know where to dive if I dive one way it could be the wrong way then my gk will shift out position for a goal to be scored the other way I don’t get it, I see all these good keepers that get these shots every time which I see as getting luck with saving them, I see it as you have to guess the right way to save, but obviously not. I have my friend on ps3 he an amazing gk but I find his advise hard to follow and doesent work, I just really wanna be amazing in goal and show my friends and club that im the best gk in their club. plz give some advice . if you red this thanks for you time pal, I appreciate it 🙂 x

You need to switch on the guide so you can see which way to dive and practice outside the club. Control the goalkeeper against the computer and learn when x or stick is better. Usually x when close and stick when long shot or finesse.

How in the world do you keep you positioning grade from draining, no matter where I am positioned it always drops. I use PC so I don’t know how to use the auto positioning so if anyone knows please tell me.

hi guys, i’m playing career mode on fifa 13 as a keeper. For some reason at kick off i’m placed around the penilty spot area by the game. No matter what i do or where i move i end up getting negative rating and the game then judges me to be “out of position” like at least three times. It really spoiles the game and it makes things impossible. I’m assuming it is bad programming. Is there anything i can do to stop it from happening? There has to be a way to stop this. Please help!

My friend plays in goal regularly for the club but he cant seem to be able to pick the ball up when it is headed back to him and the ball often goes through his legs. Is there a button for picking the ball up?

Hey i always get really bad player rating because when the ball is away(most of the time) when you press LB nothing happens and i try to place the keeper but my player rating decreases constantly. what do i do

The punching on FIFA 13 is much better, I’ve found that they almost always go at least five yards outside the box. they’re really good at launching counter-attacks, as they often go towards our pacy winger.

You forget to mention about the use of diving and using the Y button.
If the ball is coming in, using the Y ball will almost always try to punch but using the RS to dive, you catch the ball.

Also, although you have a high positioning rating as acrobatic (roughly 87-91 need to go on to find out) LB will still put you slightly out of position compared to Traditional. Also you will find that you will be able to save powerful shots across you, making you dive easier although closer range shots are slightly harder. This is with a connection with no lag.

You also forgot to mention about movement and diving.
Some people just stand in one spot and dive, and others try to move towards the shot before diving.

I use controller to play FIFA 13 on my pc. During penalties the goalkeeper won’t dive for pass.button+direction [A+direction]. Have tried all other keys too. This happens in my friend’s pc too. there’s no problem is keyboard is the default controller.

I have a question, i have problem when playing in away games, it always happen in away game but not in home. I always get ‘out of position’. When kick off n my team attack the opponent, the rating getting down, when i check, i get 2 out of position. Why this happen to me? I try to maintain my position in keeper box but it still goes down. It make me difficult to maintain my rating above 6.0..

You guys are great in sharing your thoughts on FIFA, and this article must have helped millions ppl like me in being a pro keeper. Great work!

Just one question, and I do feel really frustrated about this. Whenever I see a counter attack opportunity when my wings are high up in the field down the flanks, I always look to kick the ball with full power, however, I could always only manage to get the ball just over the half way line. I have seen other keepers getting the ball to about 3/4 of the pitch but I could never do that. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I even chose the Driven pass trait although I doubt it is relevant. thanks in advance

Punching the ball is exactly that, as the ball is coming in usually around the middle of the penalty area the keeper comes rushing towards and punches it. Try rushing out when ball is in air and not near goal.

Hi, what is the highest rating for a goalkeeper?
I have every accomplishment except from 1. At the Moment ive got a 91 on traditional and a 90 on acrobatic. Can i get a 92?
And if its possible,which height and weight do i have to use?

i have 2 questions about goalkeeping and would be glad if someone could answer it:

1.) Does it matter if i use a or the right stick for diving? I read that “a” is quicker to push what means to have a better reactiontime. Some other people wrote that the right stick is better (let you do slight steps before diving) and it let you get shoots which you wouldnt get with just simply push the “a” button. Are there any differences and what do you guys prefer and why?

2.) I read that holding lt or lb (for positioning and slow movement) during you push the divebutton/ right stick let you dive a bit later then if you would release lt/lb before you dive. So does it really matter if i hold lt/lb during diving or not?

Im still a little confused on the controls, if you play on fully assisted controls do you still have to push A for the gk to dive. Cause it seems like the goalie will dive for the ball regardless of if you push anything

What about the goalkeeping style, does it matter wether you use acrobatic or traditional. Also, do you still have to push the pass button to make a save even if you play on fully assisted controls because it seems like the goalie will dive for the ball even if you don’t push anything, thx.

I like this guide except for using L1/B. I recomend to never use it. The right positioning will be shown by the small circle so just walk to it manually if you need to. If a ahot is made while you’re holding down L1 ITit makes tour reactions slower, as your goalie is still trying to get to the circle. This could cost you a game.

5, cheers,i diddent know that , so what your saying if you hold down L1 (ps3) and try make a dive your gk will be a bit slower? so do you let go of L1 then hold L2 or something then use x to make the save? plz get back. thnx

I am consistently losing games by 1 goal which when having the weight of possession and attack on goal is really frustrating and yes it does seem like the keeper is standing like a stale bottle of pi$$ watching the ball lull past him.

Can adjust the settings easily for assisted goalkeep instead of semi however I have no idea how to create a pro goalkeeper instead of using the A1. Can you give me some direction on how to do this.

Do you mean head to head online games against people? Are you pressing select to take control of the keeper (this option is being removed for online games in 2 weeks)? This gives you control of the team goalkeeper you can’t have a pro player in goal. Unless you are playing a pro match or in career mode as keeper and losing?

Sounds like you need to improve your attacking play if having more possession. Are you finding shooting difficult?

Hi guys, you see when I play as a goalkeeper, and my team scores, instead of focusing on the player celebrating, it focuses straight to the keeper. I watch videos on Youtube and it seems they don’t have that problem. Is there anyway to solve this? Please and Thank you